1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field):
This invention relates to an environmental monitoring system, hereinafter EMS, and more particularly to a method and apparatus to detect and measure contaminants in water.
2. Background Art:
Monitoring and detection of contaminants in the environment has become an important necessity around the world. This is especially true with the increased use of industrial chemicals and toxic materials. Government regulations for compliance with certain quality standards has given birth to a search for methods to comply with these quality standards and to seek methods for detection of certain contaminants, heretofore undetectable, and less costly and cumbersome methods of contaminant monitoring than are presently available.
Under present compliance practices water samples are taken at remote sites, transported to and analyzed in a lab, where the results are subsequently determined and then reported back to the operating entity. By the time all of these activities are completed, the damage, if any, has already been done, and the only alternatives available are to enter into immediate and costly efforts to clean up the polluted sources of water.
The system and process described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,992, entitled Water Quality Early Warning System to Greaves, et al., is confined to the detection and identification, via video monitoring techniques of living organisms in sources of water supplies. The system and process of the subject invention is designed to detect the presence of contaminants other than living organisms.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,136 entitled Digital Computer for Determining Scuba Diving Parameters for a Particular Diver to Lewis describes a device designed to measure ambient water pressure and pressure of the air in a tank. The subject invention is intended to detect and report contaminants in water solutions and is not intended to be restricted to measurements of water and air pressures in a tank.
Of the known field deployable and permanently installable water monitoring systems and processes, the only process and implementing system whereby contaminants are detected and measured down to the parts per billion level is the one described in the subject invention.